Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology
program on Americantelevision. It has had a historically long
run, beginning in 1951 and still continuing today. From 1954
onward, all of their productions have been shown in color, although
color
television productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many
TV-movies have been shown on the program since its debut, though
the program began with live telecasts of dramas and then moved into
videotaped productions before finally turning to filmed ones. The
most recent TV movie seen was episode #237, A Dog
Named Christmas, that aired on CBS on November 29,
2009.

Its programming traditionally airs during sweeps, a period in
which ratings are used to determine advertising rates.

The series has received seventy-eight Emmy Awards, twenty-four Christopher
Awards, eleven Peabody Awards, nine Golden Globes, and four Humanitas
Prizes. Once a common practice in American television, it is
the last remaining television program where the title contains the
name of the sponsor. Although it is considered
one of the longest-running TV series still on the air, it differs
from other long-running shows in that it only broadcasts
occasionally and not on a weekly schedule (as opposed to The Simpsons,
Gunsmoke and the
news program, 60
Minutes).

Early
years

The series debuted on 24 December 1951 on NBC with first opera written specifically for
television, Amahl and the Night
Visitors, by Gian Carlo Menotti, starring Chet Allen. It was the
first time a major corporation developed a television project
specifically as a means of promoting its products to the viewing
public. The program was such a success that it was restaged by
Hallmark several times over a period of fifteen years.
Amahl was also staged by other NBC television
anthologies.

Two different productions of Hamlet have aired on the
Hallmark Hall of Fame, one starring Maurice Evans (1953)
and the other starring Richard Chamberlain (1970). Evans
and actress Judith Anderson brought their famous
Macbeth to the Hallmark Hall of Fame on two
separate occasions, each time with a different supporting cast. The
first version (1954) was telecast live from NBC Studios; the second
(1960) was filmed on location in Scotland and released to movie theatres in
Europe after being telecast in the U.S.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, Hallmark Hall of Fame
films often had twice the budget of other network films. Hallmark
movies also ran (in some cases) approximately 10–15 minutes longer
(or up to 110 minutes minus commercials) because Hallmark
Cards fully sponsored the films and took fewer commercial breaks.
Unlike most network movies of the period, Hallmark always filmed on
location, and usually shot for 24 days, compared to 18–20 days
for most other movies-of-the-week.

Post-NBC

For nearly three decades, the series ran on NBC, but after the
network dropped it due to declining ratings it moved to PBS, later
to ABC, then to CBS where it currently airs. Some of the films are
perennial top ten rated programs.

Episode
list

Only a small number of Hallmark Hall of Fame
programming has been released to VHS and DVD, and nearly all are
relatively recent productions. The earliest aired movie from the
series to be released on DVD is The Littlest Angel, first
broadcast in 1969.